dear eduardo,
you are amazing in your command of historical material.
i wasn't clear whether the phrase " Devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones" was actually used by the normal school or by a commentator on the school, e.g., by hayden whose letter you cite.
anyhow, i am not surprised that by statistical probability we would find the a phrase like this in some literature.
personally, i think the occurrence of this phrase prior to simon's doesn't disqualify what simon did. i think we should not be hooked too much on a single definition rather what it is being done with it. in simon's case, he wrote a book with detailed implications of his definitions which illustrates what HE had in mind. his book undoubtedly is interesting reading, but to my way of thinking it is limited to a computational conception of design, to solving trivial problems (as opposed to wicked ones), problems that favor engineering solutions not involving human conceptions, which is where my conception of design starts.
klaus
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eduardo corte-real
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2016 12:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Simon's glory
Dear Friends,
In order to establish the final glory of Simon’s “definition” I will start to post some remarkable findings in historical texts.
From History and Philosophy of Art Education, by Stuart MacDonald, first published in 1970:
“In 1837 the Board of Trade established the Normal School of Devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones in Somerset House, Aldwych, in the set of rooms ‘on the right hand side of the main entrance from the Strand’. These had been vacated by the Royal Academy in the previous year, when the Academy was granted rooms in the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square. (73)
(…)
“This pathetic situation did not escape the attention of Haydon, who took some delight in writing to Poulett Thomson on 28 February 1838: ‘My Dear Sir, I yesterday visited your Government School of Devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones. Oh! Mr Thomson, what an exhibition! Nine poor boys drawing paltry patterns - no figures, no beautiful forms! and this is the School of Devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones, the Government of Great Britain has founded in its capital!’” (75)
(…) The Board of Trade eagerly awaited the report of Mr Dyce of Edinburgh, whom the Council had sent to study the schools of Devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones in France and Germany.” (75) The school which had the highest reputation in Europe for producing designers (devisers of courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones) was the Académie des Beaux Arts de Lyon. The academy had six departments, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Ornament, Engraving, and Botany, the last having a botanical garden provided for it by the municipality. (…) The distinction between High and Low Art was not maintained as in Britain; in fact, the students did not decide whether to enter the fine arts departments or the ornament department until they had completed a basic course of drawing and painting. Life drawing was an important part of the course and the life class was open every evening. The other large school which dealt with devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones was the École Gratuite de Paris, and it had a similar system. (79)
(…)
The Bavarians ran the system most favored by Dyce. All the primary schools had classes for outline drawing of geometrical shapes and simple elements of ornament, the same type of drawing which Dyce was later to introduce generally in Britain through his Drawing Book. At this stage ‘embellishment’ such as tone and color were prohibited. Perspective was also taught. These primary devising courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones classes were optional and when the pupils who had studied them left, they could choose one of the thirty secondary gewerbeschulen which existed in Bavaria for training artisan designers (Devisers of courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones). In the gewerbeschulen the pupils learnt French, history, geography, natural philosophy, and chemistry, and continued to draw in severe outline until they were sufficiently accurate ‘ to devise courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones architecture very correctly’ and to model with precision. (79-80)
(to be continued)
Eduardo Côrte-Real
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|